1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for managing user setup information by automatically deleting setup information registered in an external device such as a multifunction peripheral connected to an information processing apparatus via a network when the setup information becomes unnecessary. The present invention also relates to a system for managing user setup information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a copying machine (a multifunction peripheral) which has copying, printing, facsimile transmission, and e-mail transmission functions enabled a user to register a macro for executing a frequently used setup and a series of processing, as a button. Thus, a user can perform processing simply by pressing a button registered on a user interface of the copying machine (multifunction peripheral). Such configuration eliminates the need of performing time-consuming setup each time, and allows the user to perform a desired operation with a simple operation.
Generally, a copying machine (multifunction peripheral) is often shared in a company. When personal relocation or seating change is made in an office, personal computer (PC) arrangement is also changed in some cases. In this case, a favorite copying machine may become distant from a user and accordingly the user may reset a user's PC environment to use a nearby copying machine instead of the previous copying machine.
Although the user deletes a setup of the previous copying machine (for example, registration as a printer) from a user's PC, the user seldom deletes unnecessary information such as button data registered in the previous copying machine. As a result, pieces of unnecessary button data remain in the previous copying machine.
There is a method for detecting and deleting data which becomes no longer necessary in this way. This method deletes the data according to priority of a deletion condition when there is no more available capacity (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-230367). Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-230367 discusses a printing device which overlays printing data onto form data. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-230367 describes a technique for deleting the form data according to the priority of the deletion condition when available capacity of a hard disk for storing the form data decreases.
With the conventional technique, the form data and other data can be automatically deleted but a setup cannot, or data is deleted together with a relevant setup. Further, since the printing device automatically deletes data based on available capacity, a storage period, and frequency of use, a setup necessary for the user may be deleted in mistake. Conversely, an unnecessary setup may remain in the device.